But human rights groups on both sides of the border say fewer death reports could
                 be linked to a possible decline in the number of crossings in recent months due to
                 heighten security and the U.S. economic downturn.

                 The foreign department said in a news release Thursday that 167 migrants of all
                 nationalities died trying to cross the U.S. border in the first half of the year, and 117
                 were Mexicans.

                 It said 210 Mexicans died during the same period in 2001 and 283 during the first
                 half months of 2000. It did not give figures for other nationalities.

                 The number represents deaths on both sides of the border.

                 Arrests by the U.S. Border Patrol this year have dropped to their lowest level in
                 nearly a decade, another indication that there may be fewer deaths because fewer
                 people are crossing.

                 "Because a lot more INS agents are out there, they could be rescuing more people,"
                 suggested Steven Camarota, Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.

                 Others suggested caution.

                 Arturo Solis, director of the Center for Border Studies and the Promotion of Human
                 Rights in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, said it was too soon to determine the
                 seriousness of the situation. "We don't know what is going to happen the rest of the
                 year."

                 Kat Rodriguez of the Human Rights Coalition in Tucson, Arizona, said some
                 migrants held off because of September 11 but may be crossing now.

                 "We're seeing a horrible, horrible increase in the number of deaths," Rodriguez said.
                 "Summer is just barely here and it looks like it's just going to get worse."

                 Previously death tolls had been increasing, largely because a growing number of
                 people were trying to avoid detection by taking a more challenging route through
                 remote deserts and mountains.

                 For example, the greatest death toll so far this year has been in the Arizona desert
                 region of the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, where 55 people had died due to
                 dehydration, the foreign department said.

                 The agency said the reduced death toll was due to offic ial efforts "to alert migrants
                 to the danger of crossing high-risk sites such as unpopulated areas, deserts,
                 mountains or rivers and canals."

                 Both U.S. and Mexican authorities started putting up solar-powered rescue towers
                 in June to provide help to migrants lost in the desert.

                 In an effort to educate people about the dangers of crossing illegally, the Mexican
                 government had launched radio and television announcements featuring stories of
                 migrants who have died.

                 For the past few years, church and other independent groups on both sides of the
                 border have placed water stations in the desert in the summer and left blankets
                 along crossing areas in the mountains in the winter.

                 While Mexican officials say they are trying to stem dangerous border crossings,
                 they also complain that the U.S. border policy increases the risks of death by
                 criminalizing people who hold millions of jobs in the United States.

                 Speaking in Houston late last month, Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda said the
                 two countries should "act decisively to end this intolerable situation" by legally
                 regulating the migration through work visas and other measures.

                  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.